Despite not having any modern technology to help pass the time, Aveline soon found her passion. Magic. This world was surrounded by it. They used magic for all kinds of inventions, including electricity, communication, and travel.
For Aveline, this was something that immediately caught her eye. Having lived her entire first life without a passion, she found her heart immediately taken with the knowledge of magic and how to perform miracles unseen in her first world. However, Aveline soon understood why there weren't as many great magicians as there should have been with something so fantastic.
It started when she was looking through the books they had in the annex. Usually, Aveline would just look for fictional stories that would help her pass the time. These books, although not as interesting as watching series online, did help Aveline understand the language more.
That day, instead of choosing another story book, another caught her eye. "Basic Magic Formulations and Learning." Magic learning? She picked it up only to assess the contents, but soon she found herself flipping from one page to another. Now this is interesting.
Magic in this world did not work as what she had seen on TV and anime. While it included sigils and incantation, and involved pouring in mana, it was a lot more complicated. For one, magic needed exact and precise instructions on what to do. It was like a computer code. For example, if you wanted magic to levitate something, you would have to tell it to first gather the mana and move that mana towards the object. You will have to explain how far the object is from you, how much mana you want to move towards it, how high it should move, and which direction up is. On top of that, you would have to say all of it in old Velmorian.
Fortunately, mana has a distinct memory. So if you understand a spell and use it a few times, the mana in your body instinctively remembers it so it becomes easier to use. For example, some one had already created the magic formula for levitation. To simply put the incantation it becomes:
"Gaderian þǣne mōd-strēam. Sceotan þone strēam tō þǣm þingum feower elna fram mē. Lǣdan hine ǣfre ūplicre. Hæf þæt þing þrīe fōt ūp. Rīsan."
To break the spell down, the first part instructs mana to gather in the core, preparing the reservoir for the spell. The second part tells mana to move to the object four ells (or meters) from you, which can change based on how far you want it to move. The third part defines the direction you want the object to move. It could be replaced with sūþ, norþ, ēast, west for other directions. Then, you describe how high you want it to be, in this case three. The final words put the entire spell into action.
While it is tricky in the long term, you don't have to say all of those things out loud, but simply think them. Thus, it becomes easier to modify a spell created. Additionally, the entire incantation can be summed up and saved, like a computer code, into a simple instruction. In this case, the spell was called Heofon-Hæfing or Heaven-Lifting. While you say the incantation out loud, you simply think of the distance and movement for it to activate.
This is also why magicians who are older are much more powerful. They have used many different spells in their lifetimes, saving the information in their mana. This makes it easier to use many different spells in any situation. However, age is not the only criterion that makes people differ. Understanding and mana capacity varies among mages. Additionally, most mages only use spells already created, but those who can create spells are in another realm.
For Aveline, she realized that being part of the Faylinn family allowed her to inherit high capacities of mana, which will only grow as she grows up. However, like many things, the amount of mana she had was related to several factors. Her genetics, environment, and training.
She lucked out on the genetics part. The environment could have been better, but she could eat food and drink tonics that could help develop her mana capacity. For training, Aveline was at a loss. She didn't know where to begin her training.
She wasn't an all powerful person only because she still had memories of a previous life. None of her previous learning would help. It's not like magic uses a specific and difficult language that is she happened to speak fluently in her past life, nor was it that she was born with amazing talents to understand magic immediately. But there was one factor that helped her. Her mind was mature. And she could read.
That was where Anna came in. Anna would get books from the main house to read to Aveline when she was a child. As Aveline grew up, those books changed from story and fantasy to magic learning and general knowledge. It was Anna who decided it was time for Aveline to start learning. Being from a noble family, Anna wanted Aveline to learn etiquette, but she also understood that Aveline might not live the life of a noble. Thus, she would have to learn more than that. Economics, history, philosophy, accounting, languages, and magic theory.
Fortunately, Aveline grew up with a brain of a child, ready to accept and absorb knowledge. That's the thing about why it's easier to learn new skills as a child than it is to learn them when you're older. New neurons are constantly being developed in a younger brain. Every skill you try to learn, neurons are quickly built to get you accustomed to it, practicing the skill only making those neurons steadier. That's a lot harder and slower to do when you're all grown up.
Added to that, her understanding of concepts and clear thinking from being a full fledged adult in soul, helped her complete her education. That is not to say it was easy. She would spend hours reading. Even that, in absence of anything else to do to pass the time, was helpful.
For children, time has always been nothing more than a concept. One moment it's morning, the next it's already time to sleep. Time would only shift from breakfast to lunch, to finally dinner and sleeping. It did not tick in minutes and hours, but rather events. But that was not the case for Aveline. For her, she felt every minute tick. So reading books, be it on philosophy or history, would help pass the ticks faster.
Thanks to the books she got, she was able to pick up on some things regarding mana. One of the things she understood was that magic is only limited by imagination. As long as you are able to imagine what you want mana to do, you just need to find the right formula and mana needed to make it come to life. And Aveline, coming from the time of creativity and animated films, her imagination was nowhere near confined.
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One thing she wanted to try out was the very famous kamehameha once she turned 11. For that, she herself created the magic formula to tell mana to collect in one place and shoot out like a beam. For that, her magic formula had to first describe where mana needed to be collected and how to shoot out. One of the trickiest things was how to explain what "like a beam" meant to mana, since it wasn't something that was normally done.
And she realized while creating the spell that you had to be very direct with what you wanted the effect to be. How the hell did the anime make it look so easy as to just collect mana and throw it out and it would hit? She had to stop in the middle to realize she was complaining about the realism of kamehameha in an anime …
Aveline compromised. If mana didn't know what it had to do after shooting out, she would just tell it. Which was actually interesting because it gave rise to four total properties: Berne (burn), Slīce" (slice), "Drȳsce" (obliterate), and "Hrēosan" (shatter). She could also come up with other things, but for now this was enough. Like that, she spent countless days in her room scribbling on paper. And so the incantation came to life:
Gaderian ealle þā mōd-strēamas on ānre handa.
Þrīstan and þrӯmian þone strēam oð hit byð swā heard swā isen.
Gerǣcan þæs feondes weg beforan mē.
Ūtsceotan þone bēamlīcan strēam mid eallum mihtum.
Berne.
To explain, the first part told mana to gather in the hands. The second part told it to compress together, which made it easier to move it in a straight beam. The third part describes the path to the target, which in simple terms is whatever direction you point your hands out to. The third part tells mana to shoot out in a beam-like stream which causes the compressed mana to release out of the palm. And finally, Berne told mana to burn the target. Which she soon realizes is a silly incantation because she could have simply told mana to burn instead of all the beam nonsense. But where is the fun in that?
One good thing about the Annex was that it was connected to a large forest land behind the estate which connected to a wider forest through which many people travelled to reach other territories. So Aveline could freely go there away from prying eyes to try out her magic. Anna, not really an over protective mother-like figure, would let Aveline do her thing as long as she came back in time.
So Aveline moves to her practical training area within the forest. The area wasn't too far from the annex that she'd get lost, nor too near that anyone could stumble upon it. The area was a small stretch of grass surrounded by forests around it. She collects her hand by her side, maintaining the pose she had seen countless times growing up with her anime obsessed brothers. She says the spell and feels mana leaving her body to collect in her palm. The purple color of mana compresses and becomes a deeper shade, until finally she says the rest of the incantation and the mana shoot out towards the fake target she made from fallen branches in the middle of the small field. The mana moves towards the target, immediately burning it upon impact.
That was badass.
The fire was almost instantaneous, burning the target quickly. This shouldn't happen with regular fire magic. Aveline hypothesizes that maybe compressing the mana and shooting it out actually causes the effect to increase.
She continues to experiment with other versions of the magic. The slice magic was also interesting. Not only cutting the thick tree nearby, but also the one behind it. Maybe it is the amount of mana gathered, but the effect remained the same even when she lowered the mana amount in her palms. The magic was being created just for fun, but she found out some interesting effects of compressing mana. The problem was that it took too long to do that. She wanted to try and see how many trees the burn version would set on fire, but decided against it in case the fire spread around the forest.
After she was done, she felt weak. Like her body was floating and eyes becoming drowsy. She had read about this. The effects of mana deprivation were strong. And to think this much mana would be used in only four spells.
So Aveline needed to find out how to increase her mana reservoirs. She couldn't take specific diets and tonics as they cost too much. She wasn't aware of how much money Anna was getting as her budget to raise Aveline, but she knew it wasn't a lot. So she decided to do the only thing she could, refer to her books.
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The books mentioned that mana is everywhere in nature, and it is not something the body can make itself. Instead, the body absorbs mana from nature through eating. However, Aveline wondered if there was any other possible method. Is she supposed to become a fat glutton just to increase her mana?
Mana existed everywhere, didn't it? So it must be in the air as well. She thought maybe she could absorb it through the air directly.
The problem was that it was almost impossible to separate mana from other materials in the air (oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, water vapors, dust, pollen, etc.) She thought maybe she could differentiate mana through molecular weight, but her knowledge of chemistry went as far as her early school days, having forgotten what any of it meant or how it was calculated to begin with. The only thing she remembered about chemistry is that to test for oxygen, you need a glowing splint. That and the fact that ammonia smelt something horror.
She then thought that maybe she could create a spell to gather mana, but that would mean having to expel mana to gather mana, keeping the overall amount the same. Additionally, the spell would require too many complex formulations. You can't absorb too much mana into your body, but rather grow it steadily. There is only so much mana the body can hold. Like water. Drink too much and it just excretes out like waste. Small amounts of mana being absorbed into the body allows it to settle and grow steadily.
"You seem to be stuck in your thoughts a lot for the past few weeks" Anna judged quietly from the other side of the table, handing Aveline a glass of water. "Is something wrong?"
Anna snapped out of her thoughts and looked up at Anna, smiling lightly. "Nothing much. Just thinking about how mana moves."
Anna chuckled. She says it like it's the most common thing for a child to wonder about. "Mana again huh? For someone who can only do a few small spells to worry so much about mana. You would think you were a great research mage."
Aveline pursed her lips, unable to say anything. If you only you knew.
She had never told Anna about the extent of her magical capabilities. Anna would worry endlessly about the possibilities that Aveline could reach, and run to the Lord to talk about her talents. Aveline did not want anyone to mention her magical capabilities to her 'family' at all. She wanted nor needed anything from them. Whatever advances she made, she made through her own effort. She did not owe it to the genetics passed through her parents, the support of her father, or the teachings of her brother.
Besides, her magic learning was only for one purpose. She did not know how long she would get to stay here. She was still a child, with Anna acting as a shield. So there was no one bothering her for now. However, she only had a few years left until she was considered an adult. Aveline knew from her previous life that this era would have their daughters wed as soon as they reached adulthood, and Aveline refused to be a political tool. So her magic would give her an out. Maybe she could seek independence and use her skills to live life for herself.
So what could she do other than sigh at Anna's remarks about her capabilities. Anna, realizing her mistake, smiled slightly. "Dear, the joy of learning is striving to find an answer. Once you find an answer, the joy is short lived, and you start worrying about the next problem." She said gently.
Aveline listened to her silently, tapping her finger in the glass and making characters on the table out of water as Anna continued. "Joy lives in the journey itself. A destination, once reached, marks the end." She smiled and left to get some fruit for Aveline, hoping it could cheer her up.
The words struck her hard. She did feel demotivated, thinking she might never find the answer. But even that was okay. The joy was in trying to find it. She remembered why she started learning magic. It was simply something she found interesting. She found her passion in it.
As she continued to twirl her wet fingers around the table, her mind began to relax. She focused on the characters she was making when a thought struck her. The water started to follow the path she made, as if attracting the preceding water molecules were attracting the ones behind it.
She remembers one of the lectures she took during her school days. How polarity affects water molecules so they attract each other. Maybe, the same phenomenon is true for mana. She jumped from the table, shouting to Anna that she was going to the forest and will be back soon. She wanted to try out her hypothesis as soon as possible.
She reached her training spot in the forest and tried to leak her mana out of her fingers, without incantation, just letting it flow. She could feel her mana flow haphazardly, but the mana would always be connected. Soon, long thick violet threads on mana began swirling around Anna, moving further from her body and meeting somewhere. Each strand coming out of her fingers, once connected, would then follow the same path.
Aveline realized that maybe she could use this method to absorb mana from the air. If she could have her mana flow in the capillaries in her lungs, and effectively her blood, she could have the mana flowing into the lung absorbed into her bloodstream, steadily increasing the amount of mana her body could hold.
Aveline immediately tried it out, but she could not feel any noticeable difference. Everyday, for the next few months, Aveline continued to focus on the new method she discovered. Every time she became conscious of her breaths, she would start flowing her mana in the capillaries. When she went to bed, she would continue to do so until she fell asleep. After a few months, it became an unconscious habit. It was almost like her body adapted to this new form of blood flow, and continued to do so even without being told to.
After 7 months, Aveline tried casting her Kamehameha spell a few more times. To her joy, she was able to do it 8 more times than she could before. While it's possible that she simply grew up in those 7 months and so did her mana, but it shouldn't be enough to increase it so she could do it 8 times. Aveline couldn't help but jump from joy. Maybe she invented a new mana increasing method. Maybe someone already invented it and she just never read about it. But that didn't matter. This was just another example of how she did not need support from the Faylinn household, but could achieve merits on her own.
However, she would not stop here. The destination she reached was an end, but one that she would simply take a breath at. She will continue to find new journeys, new spells, new merits, new ends, and new pauses.